Taipei: 9 Things Worth Doing
Everyone treats Taipei like the warm-up act before the “real” Taiwan trip, a night or two before you bolt for Jiufen or Hualien. That’s backwards. Taipei is the best-run big city in Asia for a first-timer, and most of the “must-see” list you’ve read elsewhere is filler. Here are the 9 things that actually earn a slot on your trip.
| Essentials | Taipei |
|---|---|
| Days needed | 2-3 for the city itself, more if you tack on day trips |
| Best months | Oct-Nov, Mar-May (19-28C, drier); typhoon season peaks Aug-Sept |
| Daily budget | Budget NT$1,500-2,500 / Mid-range NT$3,500-6,000 / Splurge NT$8,000+ |
| Book ahead | A timed Taipei 101 ticket and a Din Tai Fung queue slot, both worth locking in before you land |
The 9, in the order I’d do them: Elephant Mountain, Longshan Temple, Taipei 101’s observatory (once), the National Palace Museum, Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall, Beitou’s hot springs, Raohe or Ningxia night market, Din Tai Fung, and a Yongkang Street noodle crawl.
Elephant Mountain: the view that beats the paid one
A steep 20 to 40 minute climb on paved steps gets you the classic Taipei 101 skyline shot, for free, and it’s better at sunset than anything you’ll see from inside the tower itself. If you only do one “view” activity in this city, make it this one, not the observatory below.
Is Taipei 101 still worth the ticket price?
Yes, once. The standard observatory ticket covering the 88th, 89th and 91st floors runs NT$600 (about US$19), and that’s plenty for most people. Book a timed Taipei 101 observatory slot on GetYourGuide to skip the counter queue. Skip the Skyline 460 outdoor add-on, which now runs NT$3,000, roughly nine times the standard ticket for an experience that’s mostly “the wind is stronger up here.” One correction worth knowing: the tower was the world’s tallest building from 2004 to 2010, when the Burj Khalifa took the title. It hasn’t been tallest for over fifteen years, whatever a tour guide tells you. If you’re visiting after July 1, 2026, note the ticket counter and entrance moved to the 1st floor of the office tower, not the mall.
Longshan Temple: the one that’s actually still a temple
Wanhua’s working temple is thick with incense and locals actually praying rather than posing. It’s free, it’s the oldest temple area in the city, and it’s the real thing, unlike some of the temple-adjacent tourist traps around town. Pair it with a walk through Wanhua’s older alleys while you’re there.
National Palace Museum: worth the half day
NT$350 buys one of the great collections of Chinese imperial art anywhere, including the jadeite cabbage everyone photographs and nobody can quite explain. It’s free on select holidays if your dates line up. Skip the line with a National Palace Museum ticket on GetYourGuide , and budget a real two to three hours rather than a rushed hour on the way to somewhere else.
Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall
The grounds are free and the changing of the guard is worth timing your walk around. Liberty Square surrounding it is enormous and photogenic without trying, and the National Theater and Concert Hall flanking it are worth a look even if you skip the shows.
Beitou: the day trip most guides underrate
Beitou is the hot spring district at the end of the Xinbeitou MRT branch, and it’s a genuine Taipei City district, not an out-of-town excursion. Free foot baths, paid spa hotels for the full soak, and Thermal Valley steaming in the middle of it. Same MRT ease as riding to any other stop, real payoff, and none of the tour buses that pile onto Jiufen.
Which night market is actually worth your evening?
Not Shilin, despite what every list tells you. It’s the biggest and the one every guide leads with, which is exactly why the crowd and the queues have gotten worse without the food getting better. Raohe and Ningxia are smaller, more local, and give you a far better food-to-crowd ratio. Bring cash either way; plenty of stalls still don’t take the EasyCard, whatever it’s good for everywhere else. Order the stinky tofu once, NT$50 to 70; either you get it or you don’t.
Din Tai Fung, and the record on where it’s from
Din Tai Fung gets misfiled constantly as some import from Hong Kong or the mainland. It’s not. It started as a Taipei cooking-oil shop in 1958 and pivoted to xiao long bao in 1972, and the original Xinyi Road branch still operates today. Go once, expect a queue and NT$500 to 800 a head, and book a Taipei food tour that includes it on Viator if you’d rather skip the line planning yourself.
Eating beyond the markets
Beef noodle soup, niu rou mian, is Taipei’s actual signature dish, not the dumplings everyone flies in for. A basic bowl runs NT$150 to 250, and the famous shops push toward NT$400. Skip the tourist-adjacent versions near Ximending and find a family-run shop in Wanhua or on Yongkang Street instead. And while we’re correcting the record: bubble tea did not start in Taipei. Credit belongs to Taichung. Taipei will sell you one on every corner for NT$50 to 80, but it didn’t invent the drink.
What to skip
Ximending gets sold as Taipei’s Harajuku. It’s fine for an hour of people-watching and cheap eats, but if you’ve done Shibuya or Myeongdong you’ve seen this exact formula before, just with different signage. Don’t build a whole evening around it. And skip a rushed half-day version of Jiufen tacked onto your city days; it’s an hour to ninety minutes outside Taipei and deserves its own full day, which is exactly what our Taipei and Taiwan day-trip guide is for.
Where to stay in Taipei
Da’an is the upscale, cafe-heavy district near the university, good for a slower pace and Da’an Forest Park. Xinyi puts you next to Taipei 101 and the nightlife but feels corporate after dark. Wanhua is the oldest part of town and more atmospheric than Xinyi if you want to feel like you’re somewhere with actual history. Zhongshan is mid-range hotels and design shops near Songshan Airport. Compare Taipei hotel rates by neighborhood on Agoda before you commit to a district.
FAQ
Is Taipei 101 still the world’s tallest building? No. It held that title from 2004 to 2010, when Dubai’s Burj Khalifa overtook it. It isn’t in the current top ten either.
Do you need cash if you already have an EasyCard? Yes. The EasyCard covers the MRT, buses, YouBike and convenience stores, but plenty of night market stalls and small eateries are still cash-only.
Is Din Tai Fung a mainland Chinese chain? No. It’s Taiwanese, founded as a Taipei oil shop in 1958, cooking xiao long bao since 1972.
For the city as a functioning base for the rest of Taiwan, day trips and the High Speed Rail included, see our Taipei and Taiwan guide , or plan the city days properly with our 2-day and 4-day itineraries. Bring cash even though the EasyCard covers almost everything else; half the best food in this city still runs on coins and small bills.